Meet the Cook: LauraP

Say HELLO to Laura!

Q. What are your favorite things to cook?

Breads, pastries, savory stews that simmer for hours and make the house smell wonderful, anything fresh from the garden.

Q. How/when did you learn to cook?

I helped my mother and grandmothers in their kitchens as far back as I can remember. They weren’t what I’d call adventurous cooks, but they gave me a solid education in the basics. I picked up some useful pro techniques while working in restaurants in my youth, too. As an adult, I’ve experimented a lot and developed my own style and preferences. I had to learn to juggle a complicated list of food intolerances and health issues in the family–that forced me to really expand my repertoire. I had to learn a lot more about nutrition, substitutions, and adapting recipes. I’m still learning. There’s always something new to try or a dietary challenge to overcome while trying to put balanced meals on the table.

Q. Tell us about some of your cooking triumphs.

Pumpkin cheesecake, a perfect dark chocolate sauce, my whole grain spelt & whey bread, roasted duck grilled over a campfire beside our creek while we cleared brush, chicken soup cooked in the fireplace during an ice storm – those are a few that come to mind. Really, though, I think every meal is a triumph if it satisfies. Try getting balanced meals on the table to satisfy a family of six with four different sets of food intolerances, a picky vegetarian and a grandma with health issues and dietary restrictions. I consider that to be my biggest triumph – and I did it for years!

Q. What was your most memorable cooking tragedy? Q. Describe your kitchen. Do you love it, hate it, and why?

I love my spacious, cheery kitchen with its butter yellow walls, rustic chicken print wallpaper border, and stone patterned flooring. I think I would have bought this farm for the kitchen alone. Oak cabinets line two walls, and there’s lots of counter space. There’s also plenty of room in the cooking area for the big butcher block table and the ten-foot stainless steel prep table my husband bought at auction for me. Most of my kitchen pots hang from a rack over the stainless steel table where they’re easily accessible, and both work tables have shelves underneath for bulk bins, baskets of potatoes, bowls, and jars of grain, flours, coffee, tea, etc. At the other end of the room we have a beautiful Amish-built oak table that’s ten feet long with all its leaves. Windows at the sink and dining table open to the the front porch, which is lined with flowers or bird feeders, depending on the season.

Opposite the table is a big, ugly entertainment center that came with the house. We use it for a tool cabinet. Seriously. We have a monstrously ugly makeshift tool cabinet in the dining room — and I don’t mind. Much. It’s easy enough to disguise with a big tablecloth when we have guests, and there’s no need to run to the barn if I need a screwdriver or hammer — or reciprocating saw. Someday we’ll have a mouse-proofed workshop building for those tools and all the others we think we need, and we’ll have a lovely oak buffet and hutch in the dining room. For now, the monstrosity is a functional compromise. It’s some consolation that we were able to turn the nearest bedroom into a pantry room. It’s packed full of supplies and equipment for canning, making cheese, soap, candles, etc., plus a chest freezer, the wine and cheese fridge, and lots of home-canned goods.

Q. Is your pantry organized and are your kitchen drawers tidy? We need to know.

Organization is a matter of perspective. In the sense that everything has a specific space, and I can generally find what I need — yes, my pantry is organized. Other people probably would use the word ‘chaotic’. My kitchen drawers are much neater, but still not what most people would call tidy.

Q. Do you have any favorite family cooking traditions?

Super Bowl Sunday pizza. Biscuits and gravy when the older daughter and her husband are here for breakfast. Thanksgiving with a home-raised, slow-roasted turkey. Chili or a hearty soup on cold winter days. Everyone knows how to cook. Everyone helps, and we talk a lot while we’re cooking. When we’re not talking, we’re singing along with loud music — singing badly, dancing badly, and laughing a lot, too.

Q. What is the one gadget (or ten) you couldn’t do without in your kitchen?

My iron skillets and Dutch oven. I use them almost every day.

Q. If you had to take one food to a deserted island, what would it be?

Bread — preferably a hearty, whole grain hearth bread made with eggs and milk for extra protein. It’s healthy, filling food that leaves crumbs that can be used to bait snares for anything food-like that wander over to that deserted island. Seabirds maybe?

Q. What is your go-to comfort food?

Winter Flu Chicken Soup – the recipe has evolved through the years. It has loads of onions, garlic, and carrots, and usually I make it with chicken that’s been home-canned from culls from our flock. It’s not just the taste or the warmth; there’s an additional layer of comfort in eating food I’ve raised myself and knowing what’s in it and what’s not in it. I make it whenever one of us is coming down with something, getting over something, or is just feeling the winter blues.

Find all of Laura’s recipes here.

Laura blogs at The Land of Moo.

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